A federal prison inmate doesn't yet know what penalty
he'll face for slashing a former cellmate's throat and
stabbing another prisoner at the Sheridan Federal Correctional
Institution in Yamhill County.

But Thomas William Cornelius, 50, is presumably aware that he could
end up spending the rest of his life behind bars if a jury convicts him
of possessing any of 13 guns that were stolen from homes along the
Highway 101 corridor between Port Orford and Florence in late 2010 and
early 2011.

A trial in the weapons case began Monday in U.S. District Court in
Eugene.

Cornelius - who was convicted last year of attacking a former
Eugene banker and another inmate at the federal prison - faces nine
counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. If found guilty of
any of the gun charges, he could be sentenced to life in prison under a
federal "armed career criminal" law.

Federal prosecutor Frank Papagni told jurors in an opening
statement that he intends to call several dozen witnesses to help prove
allegations that Cornelius swiped guns, jewelry and other property while
committing a series of residential burglaries along the Oregon Coast.

The list of prosecution witnesses includes other men who claim to
have participated in the break-ins with Cornelius.

"At the end of this case, we anticipate that (evidence will
show that Cornelius) possessed every one of these 13 firearms"
stolen in the burglaries, Papagni told the jury.

Cornelius's court- appointed attorney, Per Olson of Portland,
pointed out in court that his client never faced burglary charges.

Olson asserted in his opening statement to the jury that
Cornelius's alleged accomplices - two of whom have been convicted
of charges related to the break-ins - lied to investigators when they
blamed Cornelius for planning the crimes, in order to obtain lighter
sentences in their respective criminal cases.

The trial - Cornelius's third in Eugene in less than a year -
is expected to last about two weeks.

A federal jury convicted Cornelius last April of stabbing and
clubbing former Eugene banker Randy Mainwaring at the Sheridan prison in
2012. Mainwaring was serving a sentence for bank fraud and identity
theft at the time.

A second jury found Cornelius guilty in July of attempted murder
for using a razor blade to slash another prisoner's throat in 2013.

Cornelius has not yet been sentenced for attacking the two inmates.

Cornelius was arrested in 2011 after police found stolen guns in
his car during a traffic stop near Reedsport. At the time, he was on
supervised release after serving 15 years on earlier convictions for
robbery and assault. As a convicted felon, Cornelius was barred from
possessing firearms.